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If it's in a public place where there's no particular expectation of privacy - in particular, if you are not party to the conversation but can clearly hear it and are visible to the parties talking - it doesn't seem like it would run afoul of recording laws.

The statute applies to "confidential communications" -- i.e., conversations in which one of the parties has an objectively reasonable expectation that no one is listening in or overhearing the conversation.

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/california-recording-law



While that does make sense, there was a period of time over the last few years where people were getting charged with violating wiretapping laws in two-party consent states for recording police, who did not consent: http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/07/the-war-on-cameras/sin...

That said, my understanding (IANAL) is that "ACLU vs. Alvarez" upheld that, in legal terms, this is bullshit: http://www.aclu-il.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Alvarez_ru...


Note that this is the same justification the authorities use for actions like warrantless GPS tracking of cars or recording of phone call meta-data.

That you have no expectation of privacy about where your car moves because someone could just follow you around. When dashcam videos are all instantly uploaded to youtube, and you can run license-plate recognition on the entire database to track someones's car around, then we might start getting concerned. And while I care a little about the FBI's ability to constantly track my car for reasons of principle, my concerns get a lot more practical when my boss is tracking my car to make sure I'm really sick or not going on job interviews.


I don't disagree that it's potentially a problem, I'm just saying that as someone recording in a public place you're unlikely to be running afoul of wiretap laws.

We should be far less concerned about personal cameras (wearable and/or phones) than fixed security cameras, anyway. We're probably on a fixed CCTV 100X as often as we're being recorded by personally-carried cameras. Worry about Glass and other such devices is just a red herring.




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